What about a case fan??

[donn]

well, my case came without a fan to put in front. Are there really good fans i should use for this or just get something cheap that works? i just bought one for $8 but haven't tried it out yet. thanks

[spdsk8r]

Anything will work fine, case fans don't do much except for run a little air over your ISA and PCI cards... I don't think you need to worry about your case fan very much.

If anything, make sure you have a good CPU fan. That's the most important one.

[kwai]

i beg to differ (again .

a good cpu fan won't do you much good if the rest of the air in the case is too hot -- where is the excess heat supposed to go? in fact some people have not only a case fan in the front, and the power supply pushing out air in the back, but also another case fan below the power supply to also push out air.

well, you bought a case fan already, but a lot of people like to go with a squirrel fan from radio shack (aka gamma 28). they really do a good job of pushing air and they're much quieter than case fans. the only thing is that you have to splice the leads into a power connector.

[Jackal]

kwai is right on. The CPU heatsink and fan can only ever cool the CPU to the ambient temperature inside the case. That's if it is 100% effective in cooling the CPU. We know they aren't.

So, the more important thing to do is to cool the ambient temperature inside the case with case fans; normally, you want to intake on the bottom of a case and exhaust at the top (heat rises).

Much more heat can then be radiated (taken away from) the CPU core by its heatsink and fan.

[Roy]

If you want real airflow, get a fan with a 15W rating instead of the wimpy little 1W type. 15W @ 12V = 1.25A. A 230W PS puts out 9A @ +12V

BTW - HOT AIR RISES. HEAT FLOWS

[deanm1]

Roy,

Where have you found 15W fans. Seems like
everything is the .18amp/1W area.

Dean

[Isos]

For a heavily loaded system, consider a 4 inch 65 CFM 120 VAC cooling fan, available at your local Radio Shack

[richard cudmore]

hi
just finished reading about heat/fans....i to have a pretty loaded case and would like to cool everything down as much as possible....i am not sure if i have the room to install anything else(another fan ?).....any suggestions ?....thanks rick

[gruven]

The squirrel fans at Radio Shack really do a good job of getting air to move...MUCH quieter and push ALOT of air.....and can mount just about anywhere...just have to have 1 side open.....and I have a good fan for the front of my case...got it at my local pcclub for 10 bucks...but has a temp sensor that turns the fan faster at higher temperatures....great to keep the noise down when that extra cooling isn't needed...

[Roy]

deanm1 - I'm researching the question even as we squeek! Part of the problem is that not all manufacturers publish power ratings, although they appear on the fans. The common spec is CFM.

It started when I placed a loose 115vAC 15w unit on top of my HS and dropped 5F. Now I'm looking for the 12v equivalent to run off of the ATX PS. I'll post something when I find it.

[dawgtuff]

Don't know much about computer teckie stuff,but I do know how to remove hot air from a confined space(being a professional firefighter for the past 23 years).We use a system called PPV(Positive Pressure Ventilation).This works much better than Cross-Flow in that it doesn't create any dead spots of swirling air inside the case.
I do recommend a high-flow,low noise fan(i.e.Radio Shacks squirrel cage,or,Global Win Tech's"I-Storm")Also,If you can,remove the slot cover below your video card(this will allow air to exhaust across the card and cool it down).But, perhaps the cheapest way is to remove the case cover and set a quiet table fan next to the open case!!!! Hope this helps.

[RyanVM]

Well, I was looking at getting a couple of 3dfxcool CaseHO fans, but after reading this, I'm wondering if I should just go with some of these squirrel fans. How big are they? How well do they work compared to case fans? Thanks.

Ryan VanderMeulen
rvand@sirus.com

[kwai]

they're about the same size as a case fan and even though they don't have a very high rated airflow (cfm), they seem to work better than case fans and are much quieter.

the only thing i would choose over a squirrel fan would be a variable speed case fan which would shut off when not needed -- nothing quieter than no moving parts. another drawback of the squirrel fan is that they don't have any convenient mounting hardware so you have to use your own ingenuity to fix to your case (hot glue, tape, super glue). they also take in air from the side, so it won't draw air into the case as directly as a case fan (but still seems to work well).

[Eli]

Good hobby-quality double-sided tape works great for mounting those cage fans. I used some DuBro (I think) double-sided tape I bought in a hobby store to mount my fan under my floppy drive, and it hasn't budged in over 3 months now... The Tamiya stuff also works great too, but the Radio Shack foam stuff leaves a mess if you ever take it off... You've been warned...